Analyst Oliver Roth with Oddo Seydler Bank said this is not a repeat of the near collapse of eight years ago: “This is not a crisis similar to Lehman [Brothers] because the authorities, the regulators and countries have learned a bank like this cannot default because of its position in the system. Which means that Deutsche Bank is not going to go bankrupt but it has to solve its problems and if the bank cannot do it by itself it must be helped.”

But by who? The German government has denied a newspaper report that it was working on a rescue plan for Deutsche Bank, which insists it is stable.

The problem is perception; if investors don’t think it is the sell off could snowball with the effects rippling out through the global banking system.